Amazon has partnered with Superscript to start offering insurance to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, with companies soon able to order cyber insurance via the tech giant. 

It’s Amazon’s first push into the country’s insurance market, as it looks to offer businesses an alternative to the traditional players.

According to broker Superscript, members of Amazon’s Business Prime Programme will be able to purchase its various plans, which include cyber insurance, contents insurance, and professional indemnity insurance. 

These will be underwritten by “major UK insurers”, the firm says, and will be discounted by 20% in comparison to current rates.

As reported by Reuters, a recent Capgemini survey of 12,000 people found that more than 50% of customers are already prepared to buy insurance from non-traditional outlets such as big tech or insurance technology companies. 

“The (insurance) industry needs to bridge the divide between insurers and customers by providing a quick, smooth buying process that is customer-centric,” Cameron Shearer, Superscript co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.

Superscript says its cyber insurance is designed to cover the risks that come with storing and handling data when running a business. This includes accidental privacy breaches, cyber crime, as well as hacking, extortion and ransomware. Malware is also covered, as is lost income and restoring data, and denial of service attacks.

Essentially, the broker’s cyber insurance covers compensation businesses may have to pay due to data or security breaches, media content liability such as intellectual property infringement, GDPR defence costs, and penalties, credit or debit card breaches unauthorised usage of systems, and data breach response services.

Superscript also currently offers IT contractors and consultants insurance and software developer insurance via its own website.

Amazon’s foray into UK business insurance with Superscript follows US insurtech firm Next Insurance’s announcement back in March that it would be offering insurance to US small businesses via Amazon Prime.

“As businesses come out of the pandemic and gradually resume normalcy, we want customers to have the best-in-class tools to run their business,” Molly Dobson, country manager for Amazon Business UK & Ireland, said in a statement.